Interior Montenegro: The Black Mountain Less Traveled

No matter if it's Montenegro or Crna Gora, the name of this western Balkan state means "The Black Mountain". While  the nation's renowned Mediterranean coast draws the most eye balls, the interior that represents the country's namesake, however, remains a hidden gem for most people.  

Inside the "black mountains", there were stunning sceneries like this

How did I find out about this place? It has something to do with my own father. Growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, there weren't many options for entertainment. Watching movies happened to be one of the most popular activities the children back then enjoyed. However, even for movies, there weren't many options either.  There were no American movies, no James Bond, no Last Tango in Paris, not even movies from the Soviet Union as China had bad relations with both the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R during this period. Other than domestic propaganda oriented films, the only foreign films people could see were from nations like Albania, Romania, North Korea, and Yugoslavia.  Two of the most popular films at that time were Walter Defends Sarajevo and The Bridge - both from Yugoslavia. Actually, simply being"popular"was an understatement for these two movies. The former became the most watched war film in the entire 21st century: thanks to a large Chinese audience, whereas the latter made an Italian folk song named Bella Ciao the collective memory of a whole generation.

Located in the north of the nation in between the Tara Canyon is the Đurđevića Tara Bridge. The bridge is where the bridge in The Bridge based and where the movie was filmed. In the end of the movie, the engineer heroically blew up the bridge- the pride of his whole life to stop the advancing enemies (and he died with it). In real history, one of the engineer who designed Đurđevića Tara Bridge did actually assist in destroying the bridge for the very same purpose during World War Two. No matter you are a history buff, or grew up seeing the bridge in the movie The Bridge, you'll be happy that you are at the Đurđevića Tara Bridge.

Of course, there is one other reason to visit the Tara Canyon region other than the bridge: The Dinaric Alps. Tara Canyon, including the bridge, is part of the Durmitor National Park - home to a world class ski resort. If there is one place to see the "black mountain", this is the place (although the high rocky surface might resemble more of something like the "grey mountain" or "rocky mountain). In 1980, Durmitor National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which makes it equally worthy visiting in compare to fellow UNESCO sites such as the Bay of Kotor and the nearby ancient city of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

There are a lot more hidden gems deep inside the "Black Mountain". One of them I happened to find out by accident was the Ostrog Monastery. Originally built in the 17th century, this Serbian Orthodox monastery looks like it was embedded into the almost vertical cliff of a mountain - in a way that reminded me of Tiger's Nest in Bhutan. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get into this monastery to see what was inside - as the place was packed with Orthodox pilgrims from all over the Balkans. I was, however, to fully experience what an Orthodox pilgrimage was like while I was there. 

Located south of the Ostrog Monastery in a valley is Podgrica, Montenegro's funky Socialist style capital city. Once known as Titograd back in the days of Yugoslavia, the city gave visitors the feeling more of a typical provincial town in Eastern Europe rather than the typical "grandiose" capital cities you see elsewhere. However, Podgorica is "grandiose" in its own ways: it has the largest amount of Socialist style architecture anywhere in the country. If you want to feel what Montenegro was like during the Yugoslav era, Podgorica is the place.

Thunder crossing the sky in Podgorica

Despite being one of the smallest countries in Europe, Montenegro's deep gorges and towering peaks have a lot to see and discover. Being the less traveled part of the country (and being a hidden gem), interior Montenegro definitely deserves more attentions!

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Inside the hospital, one of the operation rooms was heavily guarded by the SS officers. Colonel von Dietrich and Lieutenant Bischoff emerged from the stairs and entered the room.

The bearded man with glasses lying on the bed was the biggest fish the SS had ever caught in Sarajevo. This man, also known by the name Ivan, might be the key for the SS to know the true identity of Walter, if he wasn't Walter himself.

"How is he doing?" Colonel von Dietrich asked the doctor.

"Very bad, colonel. He lost a lot of blood." Replied the doctor.

"Has he regained his consciousness yet?"

"No sir, there's a very good possibility that he will never be conscious again." 

Colonel von Dietrich looked very concerned. He told the doctor: "Doctor, I need this man to wake up. I need this man to wake up as soon as he could wake up! This man is very important to us in terms of figuring out who Walter is!"

"I'll try my best, colonel." Replied the doctor.

Von Dietrich saluted the doctor and left. Lieutenant Bischoff told the soldier that he would be outside with the rest of soldiers in case the partisans launch a surprise attack.He asked the soldier to keep a good eye of Ivan.

The doctor looked around people inside the room. Almost all of the people have been closely working with him both in and outside of the operation room, except one young nurse. To save Ivan's life, he needs the nurse to be away.

"Nurse Azra, I need you to tell everyone in the hall that the operation is about to start. I must re-emphasize: everyone. Afterwards, you can go home. There's no need for you to return. We don't want to be distracted."

Azra informed every single person she could encounter in the hall. The German soldiers asked her if she wanted to "hang out" afterwards, Azra smiled and told them and her boyfriend was just waiting for her outside.

When Azra left the hospital ground, she saw her boyfriend Brzi was waiting for her. She walked up and kissed Brzi.

"There are so many German soldiers here Azra. What's the occasion?" Brzi asked.

"They captured a high ranking partisan. He's in there for an emergency operation."

"Azra, how do you know that person was a high ranking partisan, not one of the fake agents sent by the Germans?"

"I heard from the Germans myself, my dear Brzi. The Germans wanted him to be alive because they thought they could get information from him about how to defeat the partisan movement in Sarajevo. I even heard from an officer that the man inside the hospital now could be Walter himself!"

"OK, I'll walk you home. Tell me more." Brzi kissed Azra again as they walked into darkness of Sarajevo's back alleys together.

Inside the hospital, the operation was underway. The doctor realized that the SS officer inside the operation room was staring at them like shepherd dogs watching over sheeps. The German soldier, at the same time, also noticed that the doctor was constantly looking at him nervously. 

All of sudden, the power went out.

Two more SS officers rushed into the room. The room was pitch-dark, except the hand torch of the officer who was already in the room. The two officers turned on their hand torch as well.

"Gentlemen. We need your help." The doctor said to the SS officers. "We need more of the hand torches on your hands. Are you able to gather more for us?"

"We can't leave this room. You understand? We have an order to obey!" The officers said coldly.

"Excuse me. What order? Wasn't the colonel clear? - He wanted this man to be alive! If you gentlemen aren't cooperating, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to save this man's life. We must get the operation going, and we can't do that in this total darkness. Time is critical, if you don't act fast, this man will die!"

The SS officers realized that the doctor was correct, they rushed out of the room in search of more hand torches.  Some time later, not only were the officers able to find more torches, they also gathered more SS officers, including Lieutenant Bischoff himself,  who could hold the torch in order to get the operation going.

When the swarm of officers reached the floor the operation room was on, the power came back. When Lieutenant Bischoff and the three soldiers walked into the operation room, the doctor was covering the body on the operation desk the white cloth.

"What are you doing? What happened?" Bischoff questioned the doctor.

"I'm sorry. We tried our best. The patient died of organ failure during the unexpected blackout."

Bischoff uncovered  the white cloth. He saw a cold, rigid bearded man with glasses lying lifelessly. 

He put the white cloth back and said to the doctors grudgingly: "you and your so called professional team are nothing but a bunch of useless, worthless, and stupid  nobodies!" Then Bischoff slammed the door hard and stormed out of the operation room.